AN ARREST warrant for Indian tycoon Vijay Mallya over alleged bounced cheques written by his troubled airline has been withdrawn after the carrier agreed to pay the sums due, reports said on Wednesday (October 17).
GMR Hyderabad International Airport Ltd (GHIAL) said it withdrew its case against Mallya after his Kingfisher Airlines agreed to pay around $2m (£1.24m) owing in service charges.
“The case (against Kingfisher and Mallya) has been withdrawn,” said J B Chenna Keshava Rao, one of GMR’s lawyers.
“The matter has been settled by our client (GMR with Kingfisher). They asked us to withdraw the case after which we informed the court about withdrawal of the case which has been agreed upon,” Rao said.
The court had also issued warrants last week against several senior airline executives in what was seen as dramatic escalation of the crisis facing Mallya’s cash-strapped carrier.
The warrants were issued after GHIAL filed a complaint over alleged bounced cheques totaling Rs105m ($2m) for landing and other user fees at the Hyderabad airport.
The Economic Times newspaper on its website quoted another GMR lawyer as saying “the warrants issued against Vijay Mallya and other senior KFA (Kingfisher Airlines) officials were withdrawn”.
Mallya inherited his father’s beer business and built it into an empire spanning fertilisers, top European alcohol brands, Formula One team Force India and a cricket club, Royal Challengers Bangalore.
But the 56-year-old, who is also an independent member of parliament, has come unstuck with Kingfisher, which took to the skies in 2005 but never made a profit.
Reports that the case against Mallya had been withdrawn came after talks earlier on Wednesday between striking staff and Kingfisher over unpaid wages ended without an agreement.
The strike by employees, who have not received salaries for seven months, has forced the airline to ground all its planes since October 1.
The meeting in Mumbai “made good progress” but more talks will have to be held, likely next Monday (October 22), Kingfisher’s chief executive Sanjay Aggarwal said.
